This evening I had a good conversation about religion: It bothers me how divided even just the protestant church is—all I want to do is believe in God and live my life according to Matthew 25. Sharing my faith through my actions. But is this too simple? Islam demands so much more of its adherents it seems. The Malian with which I was speaking talked about the life of the prophet and the 5 tenets (believing in God as a unique God and that Mohammed is his prophet, praying five times a day, fasting during Ramadan, going to Mecca on pilgrimage if you have the means, and tithing or as they say zakat). He says it is an easy religion to understand if you just sit down and think about it. Then he asks, with what aspects do I disagree? I said 1. Polygamy 2. People who ignorantly practice without understanding even the verses they chant from the Koran in Arabic and 3) the treatment of women. He agrees with me that the treatment of women is difficult to cope with but it is more the society than religion that keeps women in an inferior position. As for polygamy he said God only blessed Kadija, Mohammed’s first wife with children. So there wasn’t jealousy between the other co-wives. He added only if you can treat your multiple wives perfectly equally should you take on up to 4. The Koran never says, take 4 wives, but insteads limits men to four. In the time of the prophet polygamy was used to strengthen tribal relations. As it was here in Africa, and there wasn’t a limit of 4. I asked him directly if he would take a second wife and he said no because he knew he wouldn’t be able to treat them equally. But he said taking a younger girl later on in life as a wife is better than just having an affair with her. I don’t understand here how society and the government allow polygamy and men still are unfaithful and cheat.
We continued by discussing women’s place in Islam. Women aren’t allowed to preach or to pray in front of men because of biology. The female form was created to be appreciated (hair, breasts, ass). So I joke, and what about the male form? I can’t appreciate his ass? The Malian goes “I don’t see the attraction.” Ha. He agreed with me where in seriously Islamic places there are separate hospitals for women and thus they get inferior treatment. For him there is nothing sexual even about Ob-gyn work—you are professional and don’t take account of what you see.
He explained as well that the prophet wasn’t well educated and was a humble person so it shows God chooses anyone. And so I retort, why didn’t he choose a woman?
So, as I write this post, I am doing the work I came here to do. Convince Americans not all Muslims are terrorists. And convince Malians not all Americans are money-grubbing capitalist war-mongers. We talked about how Christians are taught if you are wronged, you turn the other cheek. Other Malians have brought this aspect of Christianity up before so it must be written about in the Koran. I do agree that though this promotes forgiveness and brotherly love, where does it end? Islam teaches if you get slapped, you pardon. If you can’t pardon you slap back. Yet an eye for and eye leaves every man blind…well, he explained really, it is the pardoning that is the most important. So we talked about how hard forgiveness is. He says in the end God is the final judge. I tell him how yes Jesus wll come again to judge the living and the dead. So he asks, how will he judge all those before him? I said he’d give them new bodies in essence. Even if all that are left fo them are carbon traces every life ever lived is in the “book” as it were. He asked if I believed even Jews and Muslims will go to heaven. Ah, hard question. I so thoroughly having my faith challenged!
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